Residential Schools

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Residential schools in Canada

Residential schools were government-funded religious schools were built to integrate the to Aboriginal children of Canada. As according to law , indigenous children have a no right to get education and basic rights. After the introduction of Indian act 1876, it give the power to government to take control over the lives of aboriginal of Canada. This act forced children nly to attend residential schools built in 1880.

Residential schools were a central tool in a cultural genocide against Canada's first peoples, and only a major re-engagement of the state to allow them access to equal opportunities can pave the way for real reconciliation, concludes the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. For more than a century, the Government of Canada has subsidized the education of Aboriginal youth who were sent to nearly 130 residential schools, mainly run by religious communities. All of these establishments shared a common objective: the assimilation of Aboriginal children. Nearly 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children attended these institutions. The loss of identity, language and culture is priceless, as are the psychological and sociological consequences of the residential schools. (Barnes, Rosemary, and Nina 63)

After six years of work during which some 7,000 victims and officials of residential schools testified, the Commission released its conclusions on this dark chapter in Canada's history on Tuesday. Between the end of the 19th century and 1996, more than 150,000 Aboriginal children were uprooted from their families and placed in residential schools, most of them under the aegis of different religious communities.

Some 3,200 children died there - mostly before 1940 - from various diseases, including tuberculosis. Health conditions there were such that the death rate was almost five times higher than that of the rest of the population. By the very admission of the government of the time, under the guise of educating these young people, this policy had the primary aim of assimilating them and eradicating their culture. Physical, psychological and sexual abuse, malnutrition: the list of harms suffered by these children has been thoroughly documented over thousands of pages of the commission's final report, which contains more than 2 million words. (Miss, Brady, and Deanna12).

This broad investigation and report is intended as a first step towards reconciliation between the country's indigenous peoples and the rest of society. The road will be difficult. Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an official apology on behalf of Canada in 2008, but according to the commission, much more will be required because the harm has still not been repaired.

Some of the damage that residential schools have done to Aboriginal families, their language, their education, their health may well be perpetuated, or even worsened, due to current government policies," the commission concluded in its report. Often, those who move the threads behind these institutions are extractive industries and fundamentalist religious organizations. It also calls on the government to adopt laws on education and indigenous languages. And, in order to avoid that the new generations are also uprooted from their environment, it offers an approach to child protection in order to favor families and better integrate the community.

This agreement between the Government of Canada and the aboriginal peoples, which would be sealed after a royal proclamation of reconciliation, should repudiate the concepts of superiority that have animated assimilationist policies toward aboriginals, reaffirm ancestral treaties, and establish foundations. legal and constitutional to ensure that "indigenous peoples are full partners within the confederation".

Works cited

Barnes, Rosemary, and Nina Josefowitz. "Indian residential schools in Canada: Persistent

impacts on Aboriginal students’ psychological development and functioning." Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne 60.2 (2019): 65.

Miss, Brady, and Deanna Rose. "[2.1] A Current and On-Going Affair: An Analysis and Critical

History on the Effects of Residential Schools on the Indigenous Peoples of Canada." (2019).12